In supergravity where the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) decays to the gravitino with a naturally long lifetime (10^4 - 10^8). However, cosmological constraints favour charged sleptons with lifetimes below a year as the natural NLSP candidate. For this scenario we report a method to accurately determine the slepton lifetime and SUSY cross-section from observation of the decays of sleptons trapped in the material comprising the main detector (ATLAS, CMS). A measurement of the lifetime to 5% is possible after 3 years at nominal luminosity and running conditions. This method is sensitive to the cosmologically preferred stau lifetime of ~37 days and does not require the use of ancillary trapping volumes.
When the mass difference between the lightest slepton and the lightest neutralino is smaller than the tau mass, the lifetime of the lightest slepton in the constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) increases in many orders of magnitude with respect to typical lifetimes of other supersymmetric particles. In a general MSSM, the lifetime of the lightest slepton is inversely proportional to the square of the intergenerational mixing in the slepton mass matrices. Such a long-lived slepton would produce a distinctive signature at LHC and a measurement of its lifetime would be relative…
When the mass difference between the lightest slepton, the NLSP, and the lightest neutralino, the LSP, is smaller than the tau mass, the lifetime of the lightest slepton increases in many orders of magnitude with respect to typical lifetimes of other supersymmetric particles. These small mass differences are possible in the MSSM and, for instance, they correspond to the coannihilation region of the CMSSM for $M_{1/2} \gsim 700$ GeV. In a general gravity-mediated MSSM, where the lightest supersymmetric particle is the neutralino, the lifetime of the lightest slepton is inversely proportional to…
We investigate flavour violating decays of the long-lived lightest slepton and the tau lepton in the coannihilation region of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with a Seesaw mechanism to generate neutrino masses. We consider a situation where the mass difference between the lightest neutralino, as the Lightest Supersymmetric particle (LSP), and the lightest slepton, as the Next-to-LSP, is smaller than the mass of tau lepton. In this situation, the lifetime of the lightest slepton is very long and it is determined by lepton flavour violating (LFV) couplings because the slepton mainly co…
We consider supergravity with a gravitino lightest supersymmetric particle. The next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) decays to the gravitino with lifetime naturally in the range 10^4 - 10^8 s. However, cosmological constraints exclude lifetimes at the upper end of this range and disfavor neutralinos as NLSPs, leaving charged sleptons with lifetimes below a year as the natural NLSP candidates. Decays to gravitinos may therefore be observed by trapping slepton NLSPs in water tanks placed outside Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and International Linear Collider (ILC) detectors and draining…
The catalysis of nuclear reactions by negatively charged relics leads to increased outputs of primordial ^6Li and ^9Be. In combination with observational constraints on the primordial fractions of ^6Li and ^9Be, this imposes strong restrictions on the primordial abundance and the lifetime of charged relics. We analyze the constraints from the catalysis of ^9Be on supersymmetric models in which the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle and a charged slepton--such as the lighter stau--the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP). Barring the special cases in which the primordi…
We performed an analysis on the detection of a long-lived slepton at a linear collider with $\sqrt{s}=500$ GeV. In GMSB models a long-lived NLSP is predicted for large value of the supersymmetry breaking scale $\sqrt{F}$. Furthermore in a large portion of the parameter space this particle is a stau. Such heavy charged particles will leave a track in the tracking volume and hit the muonic detector. In order to disentangle this signal from the muon background, we explore kinematics and particle identification tools: time of flight device, dE/dX and Cerenkov devices. We show that a linear collide…
We report a study on the measurement of the SUSY breaking scale sqrt(F) in the framework of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB) models at the LHC. The work is focused on the GMSB scenario where a stau is the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (NLSP) and decays into a gravitino with lifetime c*tau_NLSP in the range 0.5 m to 1 km. We study the identification of long-lived sleptons using the momentum and time of flight measurements in the muon chambers of the ATLAS experiment. A realistic evaluation of the statistical and systematic uncertainties on the measurement of the slepton mass and li…
The potential for neutrino telescopes to discover charged stau production in neutrino-nucleon interactions in Earth depends in part on the stau lifetime and range. In some supersymmetric scenarios, the next lightest supersymmetric particle is a stau with a decay length on the scale of 10 km. We evaluate the electromagnetic energy loss as a function of energy and stau mass. The energy loss parameter $β$ scales as the inverse stau mass for the dominating electromagnetic processes, photonuclear and $e^+e^-$ pair production. The range can be parameterized as a function of stau mass, initial energy…
Considering gravitino dark matter scenarios with a long-lived charged slepton, we show that collider measurements of the slepton mass and its lifetime can probe not only the gravitino mass but also the post-inflationary reheating temperature TR. In a model independent way, we derive upper limits on TR and discuss them in light of the constraints from the primordial catalysis of lithium-6 through bound-state effects. In the collider-friendly region of slepton masses below 1 TeV, the obtained conservative estimate of the maximum reheating temperature is about TR=3\times 10^9 GeV for the limiting…
Considering axino cold dark matter scenarios with a long-lived charged slepton, we study constraints on the Peccei-Quinn scale f_a and on the reheating temperature T_R imposed by the dark matter density and by big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). For an axino mass compatible with large-scale structure, m_axino \gtrsim 100 keV, temperatures above 10^9 GeV become viable for f_a > 3x10^12 GeV. We calculate the slepton lifetime in hadronic axion models. With the dominant decay mode being two-loop suppressed, this lifetime can be sufficiently large to allow for primordial bound states leading to catalyz…
We consider theories with spontaneously broken global or local supersymmetry where the pseudo-goldstino or the gravitino is the lightest superparticle (LSP). Assuming that the long-lived next-to-lightest superparticle (NSP) is a charged slepton, we study several supergravity predictions: the NSP lifetime, angular and energy distributions in 3-body NSP decays. The characteristic couplings of the gravitino, or goldstino, can be tested even for very small masses.
In models with gravitino as the lightest supersymmetric particle(LSP), the next to lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) can have a long lifetime and appear stable in collider experiments. We study the leptonic signatures of such a scenario with tau-sneutrino as the NLSP, which is realized in the non-universal Higgs masses scenario. We focus on an interesting trilepton signature with two like-sign taus and an electron or a muon of opposite sign. The neutralinos and charginos are quite heavy in the model considered, and the trilepton signal comes mostly from the slepton-sneutrino production. …
We study the stau lifetime in a scenario with the LSP taken to be a neutralino and the NLSP being a stau, based on the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model. The mass difference between the LSP and NLSP, $δm$, must satisfy $δm/m_{\tildeχ} \sim$ a few % or less for coannihilation to occur, where $m_{\tildeχ}$ is the neutralino mass. We calculate the stau lifetime from the decay modes $\tildeτ\to \tildeχτ$, $\tildeχν_τπ$, and $\tildeχν_τμ(e)ν_{μ(e)}$ and discuss its dependence on various parameters. We find that the lifetime is in the range $10^{-22}$--$10^{16}$ sec for $10^{-2} \le δm \le 10$ G…
Purcell effect predicts that spontaneous radiation is not an intrinsic property of matter, but is affected by the environment in which it is located, and is the result of the interaction of matter and field. Purcell effect can be inferred from Fermi Gold rule through strict quantum electrodynamics (QED), and through it can achieve the enhancement or suppression of radiation. We suggest that, in principle, the Purcell effect can be detected at the percentage level of neutron decay in experiments with trapped ultra-cold neutrons. As a test of our claim, we propose a currently achievable experime…
The axino, the fermionic superpartner of the axion, is a well-motivated candidate for cold dark matter if it is the lightest supersymmetric particle. Since the axino couples very weakly to the matter multiplets, the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) has a long lifetime, which has important consequences for both cosmology and collider phenomenology. Assuming that a charged slepton is the NLSP, we calculate the complete leading one- and two-loop contributions to its decay. We analyze in detail constraints on the parameters space from cosmology and discuss how this scenario can be p…
Gravitinos and axinos produced in the late decays of other supersymmetric particles are well-motivated dark matter (DM) candidates, whose experimental evidences are very distinctive and different from other standard candidates, as thermal produced neutralinos in similar supersymmetric models. In particular, charged sleptons could appear stable because of the length of its lifetime. The direct production of such particles at both the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and a future International Linear Collider (ILC) can give not only a clear signature of supersymmetry but also the first non-gravitatio…
Experimental studies of neutron decay, $n\to pe\barν$, exhibit two anomalies. The first is a 8.6(2.1)s, roughly $4σ$ difference between the average beam measured neutron lifetime, $τ_n^\text{beam}=888.0(2.0)$s, and the more precise average trapped ultra cold neutron determination, $τ_n^\text{trap}=879.4(6)$s. The second is a $5σ$ difference between the pre2002 average axial coupling, $g_A$, as measured in neutron decay asymmetries $g_A^\text{pre2002}=1.2637(21)$, and the more recent, post2002, average $g_A^\text{post2002}=1.2755(11)$, where, following the UCNA collaboration division, experimen…
We propose and examine a new set of benchmark supersymmetric scenarios, some of which have non-universal Higgs scalar masses (NUHM) and others have gravitino dark matter (GDM). The scalar masses in these models are either considerably larger or smaller than the narrow range allowed for the same gaugino mass m_{1/2} in the constrained MSSM (CMSSM) with universal scalar masses m_0 and neutralino dark matter. The NUHM and GDM models with larger m_0 may have large branching ratios for Higgs and/or $Z$ production in the cascade decays of heavier sparticles, whose detection we discuss. The phenomeno…
We consider supersymmetric theories where the gravitino is the lightest superparticle (LSP). Assuming that the long-lived next-to-lightest superparticle (NSP) is a charged slepton, we investigate two complementary ways to prove the existence of supergravity in nature. The first is based on the NSP lifetime which in supergravity depends only on the Planck scale and the NSP and gravitino masses. With the gravitino mass inferred from kinematics, the measurement of the NSP lifetime will test an unequivocal prediction of supergravity. The second way makes use of the 3-body NSP decay. The angular an…
In supersymmetric (SUSY) models with the gravitino being the lightest SUSY particle (LSP), the SUSY breaking scale (i.e., the gravitino mass) could be determined by measuring the lifetime of the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (NLSP). However, for an ultralight gravitino of mass of O(1) eV, which is favored cosmologically, the determination of the SUSY breaking scale, or the gravitino mass, is difficult because the NLSP decay length is too short to be measured directly. Recently we proposed a new determination of the gravitino mass by measuring a branching fraction of two decay modes of slepton…
An analysis of radiative decays of the neutrinos $ν_j\to ν_l γ$ is discussed in MSSM extensions with a vector like lepton generation. Specifically we compute neutrino decays arising from the exchange of charginos and charged sleptons where the photon is emitted by the charged particle in the loop. It is shown that while the lifetime of the neutrino decay in the Standard Model is $\sim 10^{43}$ yrs for a neutrino mass of 50 meV, the current lower limit from experiment from the analysis of the Cosmic Infrared Background is $\sim 10^{12}$ yrs and thus beyond the reach of experiment in the foresee…
We propose to implement a two-stage detection strategy for exotic long-lived particles that could be produced at the CERN LHC, become trapped in detector material, and decay later. The proposed strategy relies on an array of metal rods, combined to form a high-density target. In a first stage, the rods are exposed to radiation from LHC collisions in one of the experimental caverns. In a second stage, they are individually immersed in liquid argon in a different experimental hall, where out-of-time decays could produce a detectable signal. Using a benchmark case of long-lived gluino pair produc…
Using the (nearly) Ricci-flat Swiss-Cheese metric of [1], in the context of a mobile space-time filling D3-brane restricted to a nearly special Lagrangian sub-manifold (in the large volume limit, the pull-back of the Kaehler form close to zero and the real part of the pull-back of e^{-i theta},theta=pi/2 times the nowhere-vanishing holomorphic three-form providing the volume form on the three-cycle) of the "big" divisor with (fluxed stacks of) space-time filling D7-branes also wrapping the "big" divisor (corresponding to a local minimum), we provide an explicit identification of the electron a…
Quantum mechanics predicts that the decay rate of unstable systems could be effectively modified by the process of the measurement of the survival probability. Depending on the intrinsic properties of the unstable system and the experimental setup for the observation, one could obtain the so called (direct) quantum Zeno and inverse quantum Zeno effects corresponding to a slowing down or a speeding up of the decay, respectively. We argue that the inverse quantum Zeno effect is in principle detectable at a percent level for the neutron decay in experiments with trapped ultracold neutrons. Conver…
We draw a possible scenario for the observation of massive long-lived charged particles at the LHC detector ATLAS. The required flexibility of the detector triggers and of the identification and reconstruction systems are discussed. As an example, we focus on the measurement of the mass and lifetime of long-lived charged sleptons predicted in the framework of supersymmetric models with gauge-mediated supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking. In this case, the next-to-lightest SUSY particle can be the light scalar partner of the tau lepton, possibly decaying slowly into a gravitino. A wide region of the S…
Measurements of the lifetime of neutrons trapped in a bottle have been consistently shorter than the lifetime measured in neutron beam experiments. With trapping potentials as low as 50 neV and neutron detectors located only at the top of the bottle, this discrepancy could be the result of the soft scattering of dark matter with neutrons. However, it is challenging to obtain the observed loss rate in conventional models of dark matter scattering. We show that this phenomenology is possible in composite models of dark matter where the soft scattering is from dark matter that has been captured a…
We consider supersymmetric models where the scale of supersymmetry breaking lies between 5 $\times 10^6$ GeV and 5 $\times 10^8$ GeV. In this class of theories, which includes models of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking, the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino. The next to lightest supersymmetric particle is typically a long lived charged slepton with a lifetime between a microsecond and a second, depending on its mass. Collisions of high energy neutrinos with nucleons in the earth can result in the production of a pair of these sleptons. Their very high boost means they typi…
We consider two potential non-accelerator signatures of generalizations of the well-studied constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (CMSSM). In one generalization, the universality constraints on soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters are applied at some input scale $M_{in}$ below the grand unification (GUT) scale $M_{GUT}$, a scenario referred to as `sub-GUT'. The other generalization we consider is to retain GUT-scale universality for the squark and slepton masses, but to relax universality for the soft supersymmetry-breaking contributions to the masses of the Higgs doublets. As wi…
